


Shadows In Your Smile

by dragons_and_angels



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Magic, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Curses, M/M, Shapeshifting, Witches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-01
Updated: 2016-10-01
Packaged: 2018-08-16 08:55:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8095909
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragons_and_angels/pseuds/dragons_and_angels
Summary: The barista at the coffee shop opposite James' office was cute but there was something odd about him.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lakehymn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lakehymn/gifts).



> Barista AU with a twist? I went with one of your likes listed lakehymn, rather than a prompt but I hope you enjoy it anyway! 
> 
> Minor side pairings: Roman Josi/Shea Weber, implied Sidney Crosby/Evgeni Malkin.

Café South was slotted in between the large department store which sold trendy clothing no one below the age of eighteen would be seen dead in and a small dog park, normally deserted no matter what time of day people looked in. It looked like it had been there for a while so James was at a loss as to how he had missed it in the three years he had worked at the Poile and Shero.

When he did notice it, one fall morning where a cool breeze was blowing and there were hardly any people on the streets, James paused for a moment at the entrance of his office. It looked warm and inviting and there were large armchairs by the window with only one of them occupied. James didn't like his job at the best of times but it was harder than usual that morning to walk through the glass doors and head towards the elevator. He barely heard Beau's cheerful greeting. 

His lunch break came around so slowly that James actually checked whether the clock in his office was working and in the last half hour he gave up on getting any work done and spent his time throwing paperclips at the new intern and seeing whether he noticed (he did and his disappointed stare was far too old for someone that young).

When he walked into Café South, he was immediately hit with a wave of ginger and found himself smiling as he got into line. The coffee shop itself seemed normal, but the clientele itself were distinctly weird. The pretty blonde woman at the window didn't seem to be drinking her coffee, simply stirring with her finger, but the level of liquid in the cup was going down anyway. In front of James in line was a man with a bright purple cloak and hat, under which his face couldn't be seen, and a woman all in black who had a faint musty scent around her like something had died and started to decay.

The line moved quickly and James tried not to stare too obviously but it was hard when he got to the front of the queue and the barista smiled at him, crinkling the skin around his blue eyes in a way that was far too attractive.

"Hi," James said, managing not to sound like a complete idiot even if he couldn't think of anything else to say.

"Coffee with double shot espresso, sugar and cream?" The barista asked, the smile remaining even as James' disappeared in his confusion.

"Yes, how did you- " A cat jumped up onto the counter, cutting James off as he startled. It was a massive thing, dark brown fur sticking up every which way, and when it yawned, James could see it was missing several teeth. He was sure of two things; cats were definitely not allowed in places where people were sold food and that was the ugliest cat he had ever seen.

"If you keep drinking coffee like this, I'm not sure what will kill you first, the caffeine or the sugar," the barista said, seemingly oblivious to James' shock.

"My friend says the same thing," James replied absently, unable to tear his eyes away from the cat. "Although I've seen him eat an entire cheesecake in one sitting so he doesn't have room to talk."

"That's impressive," the barista said as he handed James his drink. He was wearing gloves and long sleeves despite the fact it was perfectly warm inside the coffee shop. Maybe it was to protect his hands from the hot coffee. There was no one else behind James so he didn't feel guilty for lingering for a minute.

"Why do you have a cat here? Don't health inspectors have heart attacks when they see it?" James narrowed his eyes. "Especially since it looks like it was in an accident recently." The next thing he knew, he was covered in scalding hot coffee as the cat threw itself at him, claws extended.

"Bee, no!" The barista yelled and the furry mass detached from James before sauntering off, uncaring how its victim was staring after it. "I am so sorry. Bee is a little sensitive at times. When it suits him at least," the last part was muttered and James was pretty sure he wasn't meant to hear it.

"Do you think I could get another drink?" James asked, still a little stunned. To be honest, he had lost his taste for the drink now it was staining the front of his white shirt and he had lost his appetite as well.

"Of course. Let me help you with your shirt as well." The barista took James by the arm and steered him behind the counter. None of the other patrons looked the slightest bit interested in what was happening and it seemed none of them had even looked up during James being attacked by the demon cat.

"What are you going to do to my shirt?" James asked but the barista didn't answer, instead calling for some Tomáš. His unspoken question about who Tomáš was was answered when a round faced man who looked about ten years younger than James himself for his face alone but was broad enough to stretch his shirts to the limit, appeared out of a door.

"Bee attacked James here," the barista said curtly. Tomáš approached without another word, his hands outstretched, but James' attention was once again drawn away by the barista. He was smiling again and even behind his glass, his eyes seemed impossibly blue.

"My name is Paul," he said. Tomáš' hands were on James' chest but he found it hard to look away from Paul's face. "I am sorry that Bee did that to you. He can be temperamental. I hope it won't stop you from coming here again." Paul smiled but this time it seemed a little more... artificial than before. It didn't stop James from promising to return, in all sincerity. Demon cats aside, the sight of Paul on his lunch break was designed to brighten up his day. Maybe he'll avoid being scalded with his drink though. 

***

"I swear, this Café is the weirdest place," James said emphatically to Roman as they approached Café South. "I mean, weirder than Sid, weird."

"That is weird," Roman replied. He was humouring James, that he could tell, but he had accommpanied him to the coffee shop which was more than James could say for Seth who laughed his head off at James' suspicions. "I mean, there's a guy you really like and you are focused on how weird the place he works is."

James missed a step and had to right himself before he landed face down on the ground. "That's not... I mean...." He trailed off, unable to think of a way to finish the sentence that wasn't a blatant lie.

"Why don't you ask him out?" Roman asks. Café South was in sight now and already James could see Paul through the window, working his magic on the coffee machine. The big department store next to the coffee shop had been replaced by a movie theatre, although James didn't remember any construction going on. "Rather than focusing on whatever is so weird about this place."

"I don't know, maybe because I'm either being attacked by demon cats or choking on my drink or tripping over the purple man's laptop wire." James still cringed as he remembered the last incidence. Not only did James land on the floor, coffee once again staining his shirt, but the man dressed all in purple had hissed at him until Paul had had to step in. Tomáš had worked his magic on James' shirt again so he could go into work after his lunch break but that didn't do anything about James' hurt pride.

"I would have paid to see that," Roman said sincerely and James flipped him off.

"How do you ask a man for coffee when he works in a coffee shop? He could just be being polite for all I know." James shook his head before he pushed open the door of the coffee shop.

The purple clothed man was there, with a hiss for James, as was the girl with blue hair who ordered four cups of coffee and placed them just so on her table rather than drinking them. The demon cat was perched on a table, purring as a hairy little girl stroked him and Paul was carrying out the coffee orders of the people in the queue with his usual unflappable calm. James never saw anyone else work behind the counter with Paul but the queue never slowed. It wasn't sure how Paul did it, maybe he had some sort of coffee magic in the same way Sid never got wet from the rain, but it just added together to make him Paul. James had been in about six times since the first time and every time he had struck up a conversation with Paul (avoiding the demon cat at the same time) but he still felt like he knew nothing about him after all this time. James, on the other hand, talked about himself freely.

"The usual, James," Paul said, handing a cup to him without James having to say anything. He gave James a distracted smile but his eyes were focused on Roman. "And who is this?"

"This is a friend of mine, Roman. Roman, this is Paul." For a moment James wondered if he had made a mistake. After all, Roman was very pretty and a nice guy as well and if Paul decided that he wanted to ask Roman out, then there was nothing James could do apart from wish them well unless he wanted to be a giant asshole.

"It's nice to meet you. James has talked a lot about you," Roman said. He said in a polite tone of voice but he was just being a dickhead and James couldn't even elbow him without Paul noticing and drawing attention to the fact. James didn't talk that much about Paul, that was stupid. He had mentioned him a couple of times, to Roman, to Geno and maybe to the new intern at work as well.

"Really?" Paul sounded odd and when he smiled at Roman, it was nothing like the ones he had given James so far. It was like a shark was smiling at a fish, right before it devoured it whole. "He hasn't mentioned anything about you." James blinked and looked between his two friends, confused. Roman was giving Paul a thin-lipped smile while Paul was giving every appearance of geniality but his eyes were sharp and very blue behind his glasses.

"Sounds like James," Roman replied, breaking the staredown first. "I would like an herbal tea, to drink in, please." Paul stayed staring at him for a second longer before he turned away. James took a breath as if Paul had been holding him there in place. "Well, that was interesting," Roman muttered as he collected his tea from a silent Paul and followed James over to a table in the corner.

"What was that?" James asked. He kept his voice low and leaned in to make sure no one else could overhear. The demon cat of Paul's was on a nearby armchair but apart from him, there was no one else around. "You and Paul seemed to be saying something without actually saying anything." James felt a little jealous actually, though it was more than apparent there was nothing friendly between Roman and Paul. In fact it looked like Roman could have been on fire and Paul wouldn't have offered him a glass of water. "Do you know each other?"

Roman shook his head and took a drink of his tea. Normally James would make fun of him for his ridiculous and complicated choice in teas but at the moment he was too discomforted. "No," Roman answered. "I think Paul's reaction to me was more to do with me coming in with you."

"And that's good, right?" James asked before another thought occurred to him. "Then why did you react like you did?"

Roman looked more uncomfortable now and he avoided looking James in the eye. "He feels wrong, James," he said quietly. "Like there's something hovering over him. I don't think it's Paul himself but the wrongness is so intertwined with him, it's hard to differentiate between the two." James glanced at Paul who was cleaning up a table near the doorway but he looked the same as ever. His white apron with the coffee shop logo on it stretched over his hips and James still wanted to run his fingers through his hair and kiss him until they were both desperate.

"What do you mean there's something wrong with him?" He asked, turning back to Roman. He realised his voice was a little loud and dropped the volume. "He's a good guy, Roman."

"Maybe so, but there's something wrong there," Roman replied. "I think it would be a good idea to stay - ow, fucking God." Roman shot straight up, Paul's demon cat hissing and attached to his legs by his claws. There were already pinpricks of blood on Roman's jeans and James knew from painful experience that trying to pull the cat off would make it ten times worse when the cat started to bite. He looked around for Paul but despite him being at the front barely a minute ago, there was no sign of him now.

"Bee, no!" A bearded man, tall and broad with a stern look on his face marched over to them. He was wearing the coffee shop's apron as well and so James let him try to convince the demon cat to let go. "Get off him." The cat hissed one last time before dropping off and slinking away to the back room, the other customers ignoring the whole scene as always. "I am so sorry about that."

"When you say you were attacked by a cat, I wasn't expecting it to actually be true," Roman said to James. He looked a little pale, the adrenaline crash obviously making him shaky as well, but when the strange man came closer, he perked up. "I'm Roman," he said to the man, who blinked at him, obviously surprised. 

"I'm Shea. Are you okay?" Shea gestured and Roman looked down at where pinpricks of red blood was showing through his jeans. 

"Oh, that. It stings but it's okay." Roman smiled and James recognised that smile. He rolled his eyes and headed off to the counter where Paul had just reappeared, leaving Roman to his flirting. 

"At least I'm not the only one that cat attacks," James said as he leaned against the glass case where the cakes were kept. Paul made an agreeable sound. James glanced back at Roman. "At least he seems to be getting something out of this trip," he muttered, more to himself than to Paul. 

"Did you want anything?" Paul asked. When James looked at him, Paul was focused on cleaning the steamer wand, almost too focused considering James had seen the cloth cleaning the steamer by itself once, and the expression on his face was still and carefully controlled. 

James was confused. Nothing had happened so he was really confused as to why Paul seemed like he was trying to get rid of James. Was bringing Roman to the shop really that bad of an idea? "No, I'm alright." He pulled himself up to standing and watched Paul for another minute more but the man didn't look at him once. "I'll go," he said eventually and gave it a moment but Paul didn't look up or respond to James at all. 

That was that he guessed. He gave a short wave to Roman to let him know he was leaving (Roman barely glanced his way but gave an acknowledging wave in return) and headed towards the door. The skin on the back of his neck prickled, like someone was watching him, but when he looked back Paul had his back to him but the demon cat was watching him with narrowed brown eyes. 

James felt more than a little downtrodden as he headed home. 

***

"It doesn't matter what time I go in to the shop, he's never there to talk to. I've seen him through the window and then when I enter the shop, he's disappeared to the back room again. I've waited in there for two hours and he's never shown his face but I know he's there." James knew he was sounding unhinged as he ranted to Geno but whatever was going on with Paul was getting old. It had been two weeks since he had brought Roman to Café South and he hadn't seen Paul once since then. Roman's relationship with the bearded guy, Shea, was going great, they were going on their third date the next day and he knew that Paul knew about it as well. "I just want to find out what I did wrong."

Geno looked sympathetic and a little bored, considering he had heard the same rant several times over the last week, while Sid was reading a book on the other end of the couch and ignoring both of them. "Maybe you did nothing wrong," Geno said which was a lot nicer than he normally was to James. "Shit going on with Paul, nothing to do with you." Geno shrugged.

"But what should I do about it?" James could hear the whine in his voice and hated himself for it. "I've been patient, it's been two weeks. Surely he could just let me know he's going through something and I would wait."

Sid sighed pointedly and put down his book. He looked irritated and yes, fair enough, James was interrupting his and Geno's free time but Geno hadn't wanted to go out so they were stuck here in Sid and Geno's flat. "Do you want my opinion?"

The instinctive answer was no and James knew Sid would accept that and go back to reading his book. But, despite how Sid's opinion was typically blunt and painful to hear, it generally was worth listening to. "Okay, sure," James replied and braced himself.

"You need to leave him alone," Sid said. "You're almost stalking this guy at his place of work. If he doesn't want to see you, James, you need to take the hint and back off. Whether Paul's problem has anything to do with you or not, you're not helping him by dogging his footsteps at his work." Sid kept his face blank and Geno looked between the two of them, wary but not getting involved for the moment.

Ouch. That really hurt. James opened his mouth, instinctively wanting to defend himself, but then he remembered what had happened to Beau, one of the people who worked the front desk. One of their client's friends had fancied herself in love with Beau and had showed up every day at the office to talk to him. James, like many others, had thought it was hilarious, but then the woman had shown up Beau's flat after having somehow found out his address. It got a lot less funny then.

He hadn't realised he was doing the same thing. Paul couldn't escape or avoid the shop, he worked there, and so James was just trapping him and trying to force him to see him. "Oh," he said, for lack of anything else.

"Yeah," Sid said quietly. "Sorry, James."

"Me too," Geno echoed.

It hurt, but Sid was right. A little distance would help. If Paul wanted to talk to him, he would have come out of the backroom by now. He didn't so James needed to respect that and back off.

"I'll be okay." James smiled but it stretched oddly on his face and he let it drop after a moment. "In a little while," he allowed. He did like Paul, he was dryly funny and made James smile at the thought of him but James could take a hint.

So James backed off. But he couldn't let go completely so a week later he conscripted Geno to go and apologise to Paul. He didn't want Paul to be constantly on edge looking for James to come in, he just wanted to let him know that he could relax. 

"This is bad idea, Lazy," Geno said as they stood outside Café South. He had been unimpressed when James had got him down here in the first place but he had come and that was the important thing. 

"It's a great idea. Paul gets to know I won't be bothering him anymore and I get closure." The look Geno gave him was more than a little doubtful and James looked away. Okay, it was probably more selfish than he let on but he just wanted to know for sure there wasn't any hope. If Geno went in and told Paul James wouldn't be bothering him anymore, then that left the ball in Paul's court. 

Geno sighed. "Sid thinks bad idea too," he said and James spluttered. 

"Why does Sid know? I asked you so I wouldn't have to tell Sid!" The judgemental look Geno was throwing him now was completely Sid's influence. "Look, it can't hurt. And this way we can both move on." There was a scratching sound and James looked down to see Paul's demon cat skulking around the wall, his brown eyes fixed on James. "Just go." 

The cat followed Geno into the Café, ignoring James for the moment and he tried not to take that as some sort of omen. 

The lights in the Café flickered as Geno went into the shop and then the windows went opaque for a moment before back to normal. He couldn't see Geno in there though, but he couldn't see anyone from this position and he didn't want Paul to see him craning his neck to try and look at him through the window. James leaned against the brick wall with a sigh.

This probably was stupid and creepy. He didn't deal with rejection well but something sat wrong with him about how Paul had pulled back and grown cold. If James could just talk with him he would have been able to find out exactly what the problem was. If it was the fact Paul didn't like James anymore, then he would just have to accept it. But if it was a misunderstanding then James could at least do something to fix it. He really wanted to fix it if it were possible, he wanted to know more about Paul and this weird shop which seemed to pop out of the ground. You would think he would be used to all this weirdness considering what he had seen Roman do with plants and what happened to the sky when Sid got annoyed or upset, but he had always dated people that weren't the least bit weird. In his last relationship, Rich had been far more normal than James himself actually. And if you looked at Paul you would think he was normal, when he really anything but.

The door swung open. "Did Geno mean it?" Paul was there, white Café apron and all, right in front of James. He straightened up from the wall and gaped at Paul for a moment. The other man didn't look angry or upset, although his mouth was creased with some sort of emotion, but his eyes were fixed on James with a steadiness that made it hard to look away.

"Mean what? What did Geno say?" He was meant to go in, say James wouldn't be bothering Paul anymore and come right out. There wasn't meant to be any conversation.

Paul hesitated but carried on. "He said that you got the impression that I didn't want you around anymore and so you would take the hint and stop coming to the Café." He took in a breath. "I didn't want you to stop coming to the Café but I didn't want.... I thought your friend had told you."

"My friend?" James felt like he was several steps behind where he needed to be for this conversation to make sense. "Do you mean Roman?"

Oh, that was not a happy expression on Paul's face. "Yes. I thought he told you about why he gets a bad feeling and you, knowing I liked you, had decided to avoid me."

"Why would I avoid you?" It was hard to keep the grin off his face and since Paul was looking back at the door to the shop, he didn't even try. Paul liked him, like honestly liked him. James wasn't sure why Paul thought he would avoid him because of that, it was pretty obvious that he liked Paul in return, but he did know he really wanted to kiss him.

Figuring that words were just confusing everyone, James decided action was the better idea and pulled Paul in by the front of his shirt to lay a kiss on his mouth. It was perfect for the split second it happened and then Paul shoved him back so hard James' back scraped against the wall.

"Ow," he protested. "That's a little rougher than I wanted." Then he looked at Paul and all traces of humour in the situation disappeared. "Paul?"

Paul was white, his skin showing starkly underneath his beard, and his gloved hands fluttered over James as if he wasn't sure where he could touch him. "How are you still alive?" He whispered and James blinked.

"What?" There wasn't much else to say because none of this made sense at all.

Paul stepped forward, one gloved hand coming to rest on James' chest where the adrenaline and excitement was making James' heart pound double time. "You're alive."

"Yeah," James replied. "Fit as a fiddle and I'm not going to drop anytime soon." Paul still looked like he had been hit by a truck and James reached a hand up to his cheek, wanting to comfort him. It hurt when Paul jerked away as if James' hand was poison.

"No, we can't," Paul replied. Every movement he made was jerky but he kept one hand on James' chest and kept glancing down at it as if to make sure it was still there. "I don't understand."

"That makes two of us," James admitted and somehow this was the thing that broke Paul out of his stupor. He pulled James into the Café, his face still pale underneath the lights. "Are you alright, Paul?" He asked. He didn't try to touch Paul again, one rejection was enough, but he looked around for a chair to sit him in. "You look like you're about to fall down."

"I'm fine, James. What I don't understand is how you are as well."

Geno was at the counter talking to Shea and both of them seemed surprised to see the two of them there rather than making out against the wall outside. Well, that makes three of us, James thought grumpily. His back still ached a little bit from where Paul had pushed him against the wall. He had thought they were on the same page, he thought he had understood what Paul meant when he said he liked James, but obviously something was wrong because Paul was now going over to a man with dark brown hair and beard, eyes that screamed something familiar to James and several missing teeth.

"Brent, what the hell is going on?" Paul asked. He sounded at the end of his tether.

"I would really like to know the answer to that question as well," James said, raising a hand up. He had stayed with Shea and Geno but ignored the two of them to focus on Paul.

"He broke the spell," Brent said happily. There was a purring tabby cat sitting on his lap, one ear half ripped off and now healed over, and when he stroked one large hand down the cat's back it was obviously in heaven. It wasn't as ugly as the demon cat from before but it was pretty bad. 

Paul looked poleaxed. "But you can't talk about it," he said weakly.

"What spell?" James asked.

"He was cursed to kill whoever he fell in love with just by touching their bare skin. The only way to break the spell was true love's kiss but of course, Paul didn't know that. And I couldn't tell him." Brent grinned, now obviously happy, and started to hum tunelessly to the cat on his lap.

"That is a nasty curse," a vaguely familiar blonde woman in a bright blue dress at a nearby table spoke up. She had a cup of coffee which she was stirring with her little finger. 

"Oh yes, especially when you don't know about how to break it." Her companion, another woman with wavy blonde hair in a identical dress, this one in red, said.

"It must have been hard," the last woman on the table said. She was dressed similarly to her companions in a white dress, but she was East Asian with straight dark hair. "To have the only way to break the curse to be to touch the one you love when everything you know says to avoid that from happening."

Paul nodded weakly and this time he did sit down at one of the tables, slumping against the back as if all his energy had been drained. James came to crouch down in front of him and tried to ignore the several pairs of eyes that followed his movement. The three women weren't the only people in the coffee shop watching him now. Rather than ignoring everything like that had done in the past, James and Paul had an avid audience. Even the cook, Tomáš, had come out from the kitchen to find out what was going on.

"They're right. That does sound like it sucked. Badly." James could see Paul's eyes were shining and he didn't know what to say. The two of them hadn't even been on a date outside of this place, although Shea had taken over and allowed the two of them to barricade themselves in a corner and talk more than once over the last several weeks.

"It really did." When they were in private later, James would ask about who was responsible for the shadows behind Paul's eyes. Did someone hear about the curse and leave? Or did someone accidentally touch Paul's skin, someone not as reckless as James and didn't go straight for the kiss, and they died in front of Paul? James couldn't even imagine and he definitely didn't have the words to take that look off Paul's face.

He stretched a hand up and hovered it over Paul's face, not touching but waiting for permission. Paul took in a shaky breath and nodded and James was finally able to feel the scratch of Paul's beard underneath his hand. He was a touchy feely kind of person and not being able to do it to Paul had been hard.

There was a muffled sob from Paul as nothing happened to James after touching his cheek and James pulled him into a hug, hiding his face from their eagerly watching listeners, knowing that Paul would not want the whole Café to see his breakdown. "Okay, everyone, you've had your show. Can we get a little privacy please?" And to his amazement, they did.

"You find weirdest things," Geno said fervently before getting back to talking to Shea about whatever they were talking about. The three women roped Tomáš into coming out from behind the counter and were pressing him about the reason why all his treats had tasted salty the other week. Brent hopped down off the counter, the cat on his lap not waking up even as it was sprawled in his arms.

"Sorry about attacking you that time." He grinned and James finally realised where he knew those eyes from.

"You're the demon cat," he said, too surprised to censor himself. Brent didn't say another word, just headed off to the back room.

"No cats in my kitchen!" Tomáš followed after Brent. James turned back to look at Paul, pulling back a little so he could see Paul's face.

"How are you feeling?" He didn't know how long Paul had been living with the curse but it would drive James into madness after a week and so he couldn't imagine what it had done to Paul.

"Stunned. I can't believe, all this time, and it was a fairytale answer." Paul shook his head.

"Well, it wasn't exactly like it was a fairytale curse," James pointed out. He was getting more discomfitied by the second. If the person who had cast the curse was someone who hadn't believed in true love's kiss, there were people out there despite all the old stories proving them wrong, did they mean for Paul never to be set free? What did Paul do that had earned that kind of wrath?

"The witch who cast this, I had helped her girlfriend escape from their relationship, and because the girl had run as soon as she could, the blame had fallen on me. I could understand why she run now." Paul looked faraway for a moment as if he was thinking back on that memory but when he smoothed a hand absently over James' chest, his gaze sharpened.

In the next moment he had torn his gloves off and dumped them on the table and was raising his hands to James' face. James stayed still, letting Paul cradle his face in his hands and watch as James carried on breathing. "I still can't believe it," Paul whispered even as he looked at living, breathing proof.

James smiled and the next moment had Paul slanting a kiss over his lips. His hands remained on James' face allowing Paul to control the kiss and James willingly surrendered, letting his hands rest on Paul's hips.

"Paul, James, I think I need to remind you that you're still in the shop." The amused voice was like a bucket of cold water and James pulled back from Paul and tried to keep his rapid breathing under control.

"Sorry, Shea," Paul said, embarrassed, but his lips were red and his cheeks were pink and all James wanted to do was pull him into another kiss.

"Shea, it's time for Paul's break now, right?" He raised his voice a little but didn't take his eyes off Paul.

"Right." Shea sounded amused. Paul went even pinker but didn't protest. He hadn't let go of James though they had stopped kissing.

"Come with me?" James asked. Paul smiled, no shadows behind it this time, and agreed.


End file.
